Air Commodore Ricky Wright RIP

Kyt · Nov 14, 2007

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2007/11/14/db1401.xml

Air Commodore Ricky Wright, who died on November 5 aged 88, had an RAF career of many contrasts.

As a sergeant he flew Hurricanes over south-east England during the most intense period of the Battle of Britain; in early 1942 he was captured in Java and spent more than three years in Japanese prison camps; after the war he flew one of the first groups of jet fighters to cross the Atlantic from England to North America and later commanded two V-bomber bases.

Wright joined No 605 (County of Warwick) Squadron in July 1940, a few days before it left its Scottish base for Croydon. He saw a great deal of action during the summer of 1940, and in the early days of September he shared in the destruction of a Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighter and a Dornier 17 bomber. On September 15, the climax of the Battle, and a day commemorated as Battle of Britain Day, Wright shot down a Dornier 17 over Maidstone.

No 605 was one of the most successful squadrons during the latter phase of the Battle and remained in the front line for an unusually long time. Wright had further successes, and by the end of the year he had accounted for six enemy aircraft, probably destroyed three more and damaged a further six. At the end of November he was awarded an immediate DFM (the first to his squadron) for his "fine qualities of leadership, outstanding skill and personal courage"; at the same time, he was commissioned.

Eric William Wright was born at Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, on September 21 1919 and educated at Cambridge County School and the Technical College. He joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in June 1939 and was called up when he had completed his training as a pilot.

After the Battle of Britain, Wright remained with No 605 until he left for India in 1941, when he was made a flight commander of No 232 Squadron. After the Japanese attacks on Malaya the squadron embarked on the aircraft carrier Indomitable, flying off to Java at the end of January 1942 en route to reinforce the beleaguered squadrons at Singapore. Within a week Wright's CO had been killed and Wright was promoted to squadron leader to take command. He damaged a Japanese bomber off the west coast of Singapore, but 232 was soon forced to evacuate to Sumatra.

Within days a further withdrawal to Java was necessary, and Wright was made CO of a composite squadron made up of the remaining Hurricanes. They were hopelessly outnumbered, and losses mounted. With only a few aircraft left, on March 1 Wright was ordered to pass his remaining Hurricanes to a group selected to stay behind and take his remaining pilots to Tjilatjap, on the south coast, from where they were to board a boat for Australia. Two Ford V8s were commandeered, and the party drove through the jungle at night, only to find that the last boat had been sunk. In vain they searched along the coast for other craft. A few days later the island fell to the Japanese, and Wright and his pilots soon found themselves in the native jail of Boei Glodok.

After a period at Batavia filling bomb holes on the airfield, Wright and his party were shipped to Japan via Taiwan in the hold of a ship carrying iron ore. For a time they worked as farm labourers before Wright was sent to Habu, on Innoshima Island, to work in the shipbuilding yards. Late in the war he was moved to a camp holding Dutch prisoners, where conditions were more brutal. After the second atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki the PoWs awoke to find that the Japanese had left.

In September, Wright was taken to Guam and returned to England via the United States and Canada, completing the final leg of his journey in the Queen Mary. Once the details of his work on Java became known, he was awarded a DFC "in recognition of gallant and distinguished service against the Japanese in the Netherlands East Indies".

Wright resumed his career as a fighter pilot flying the early jets and was a member of the RAF's official aerobatic team, No 247 Squadron, flying Vampires. In April 1948 he flew one of the six single-engine Vampire F3s of No 54 Squadron which made the first Atlantic crossing by jet aircraft.

Taking off from RAF Odiham, and flying via Stornoway, Iceland and Greenland to Goose Bay in Labrador, the distance of 2,202 miles was completed in a flight time of eight hours 18 minutes. They went on to the United States, where they were feted by their USAF hosts and the press and undertook a number of air show appearances, including the grand opening of Idlewild Airport. On his return Wright was appointed to command No 54.

After spending a year at the Central Fighter Establishment Wright was appointed wing leader at Linton-on-Ouse with command of three fighter squadrons. In late 1956 he converted to the Hunter and took the Tangmere Wing to Cyprus for the Suez operations. He was then given command of the RAF's first Bloodhound ground-to-air missile squadron. In 1960 he was promoted to group captain and spent three years at Headquarters Fighter Command, where he was heavily involved in the introduction into service of the supersonic Lightning fighter.

In 1963 Wright moved into an entirely new flying environment as commander of the Vulcan bomber base at Coningsby in Lincolnshire, before moving to another Vulcan base, at Cottesmore, a year later. The V-force provided the country's strategic nuclear deterrent and was at the height of its capabilities. On promotion to air commodore in November 1965 he was appointed Director of Flight Safety. Four years later he went to South Africa as the defence attaché before taking early retirement in 1973.

Wright was appointed CBE in 1964. He also received a King's Commendation for Valuable Services in the Air and the Air Efficiency Award.

Always a keen golfer, Wright was secretary and chief executive of Moor Park Golf Club until he retired to Somerset, where he was club captain at Sherborne. He was an accomplished handyman, and spent two years restoring an old property and its gardens, which became the family home.

Ricky Wright married, in 1946, Katherine Skingley, who survives him with their son and daughter.
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spidge · Nov 14, 2007

There are certainly many stories to be told of those who have overcome adversity after the horrors of war.

Antipodean Andy · Nov 14, 2007

An amazing man. RIP.

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